Mom
by SnowingShipper
Summary: Emma and Snow have a talk on the Jolly Roger. Contains spoilers for "And Straight On Til Morning" Update: A new chapter, "Dad", has been added.
1. Mom

**Just a little post-ep for "And Straight On Til Morning" to help me deal with overwhelming barrage of feels. **

**I do not own Once Upon A Time**

Snow blinked quickly as she awoke. She couldn't tell what might have awakened her save for a slight, but nonetheless present, feeling that something was wrong. Turning to the side and spotting Emma's empty bunk, she allowed a small smile to grace her face. _Maternal instinct_. Slipping quietly out of bed, careful not to wake Charming who, finally free of the sleeping curse induced nightmares, was sleeping peacefully beside her, she grabbed her coat and shoes from near the door and stepped quietly up to the deck.

She quickly spotted Emma leant against the side of the ship staring out at the dark night and it didn't take much of Snow's maternal instinct to realise what she was thinking about.

"He's going to be alright you know."

Emma must have heard her come out on deck because she didn't seem at all startled by the sudden interruption of her thoughts and merely continued to gaze broodingly at the ocean.

"We'll find him."

Emma had tried to be optimistic, she really had. They had a ship, they outnumbered Greg and Tamara and they were at least in the same world as Henry was now, so there was hope. But, in the middle of the night, looking out across the seemingly vast ocean of a world she didn't know while her son was miles away with people capable of torture and murder, optimism didn't come easily and Emma was left with a sense of emptiness and despair.

"How can you be so sure?"

There were so many emotions tied up in that one little question that it took Snow a moment to decide which to respond to. Emma was at once incredulous, doubtful, terrified and, what Snow eventually decided to address, desperate for comfort and reassurance.

"Because that's what this family does, we find each other. We have crossed realms more than once already to reunite our family and we will do it as many more times as we need to to keep us together. We always find each other."

"Don't you ever get tired of looking?" Emma asked her dejectedly.

"I am always tired of looking," Snow admitted. "But this is the hand we've been dealt, and it's awful and you can cry about it and scream that it's not fair if you want to because it's not fair. It's not fair that one little girl should have to suffer so much. All we can really do though, is to do our best with what we've got and you just have to have some hope and faith. We will find him."

At this point, Snow felt as though she was reassuring herself as much as her daughter. She had always had hope and faith in the past and that, along with a healthy dose of courage and determination, which she knew that Emma had in spades, had always fared her well. It was true what she had said, they had crossed realms before to reunite their family and she knew that they would do whatever it took to bring Henry back. And yet, the thought of her little grandson out there all alone was enough to shake the most unwavering of faith.

"But what. . .what if they. . ." Emma choked back a sob as the weight of the concern she was unable to voice hung in the air for a few moments. Snow placed a comforting hand on Emma's shoulder before she finally spoke.

"If they wanted to kill him, they could have done that just fine in Storybrooke. There has to be a reason why they'd bring him all the way to Neverland."

Emma nodded, at last slightly comforted by Snow's words as she knew they were true.

"I'm just. . ." Emma turned to look at her mother and took a deep breath. " I'm just so scared."

Taking in Emma's red-ringed, watery eyes and tear stained cheeks, Snow couldn't help but reach out and consolingly caress her daughter's cheek. "Oh my baby. . ." she whispered, her voice full of pain.

Just weeks before, the gesture and the words would have made Emma recoil in terror but now she found herself leaning into Snow's touch and her head eventually came to rest on her mother's shoulder. Snow wrapped an arm around her daughter, and for a few moments they stood in silence.

"You called me Mom," Snow finally said, and Emma flinched slightly.

She had been calling Snow and David 'Mom' and 'Dad' in her head for weeks, seeing how it sounded, how it felt, but she'd never said the words out loud, even in private. They were just too deep, too personal and she wasn't sure that she was ready to say them. But in the mines, death had seemed inevitable and Emma had been terrified. Of death itself, but mostly of the knowledge that Henry would be alone, just like she had been. It was that thought that had made her really realise that she wasn't alone anymore. It may have taken twenty-eight years too long, but she finally had a family. She had parents who had risked and lost so much for her and loved her more than she had ever imagined anyone could love. She had not wanted them to die without knowing how she felt. Without knowing that, despite how hard everything had been and how much they all had suffered, they were her parents. They were her Mom and Dad. And she loved them.

She didn't regret saying it, not really. She just hadn't imagined that Snow would have the chance to get over emotional about it and the thought of that concerned her slightly. A long silence followed Snow's comment before Emma finally broke it.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well, that can't be all you're going to say about it. You're. . .you like to talk about things like this. Like a lot."

Snow chuckled slightly. "I do, but I don't want to spoil it by going on about it and making you uncomfortable," She paused briefly. "I'd waited my entire life to hear those words."

There were another few seconds of silence as Emma wrestled with her feelings. The emotional walls that had been so strong when she first arrived in Storybrooke had been determinedly chipped away at by almost everyone she'd met, but enough remained that she was wary of revealing too much about how she felt. However, Snow had always, even before they knew she was her mother, had an uncanny ability to push those walls even further and to make Emma divulge far more than she'd ever intended and, in the middle of the night with her mother's arm wrapped around her shoulders providing much need comfort, Emma found that the emotions she'd been so prudent with revealing seemed far less daunting than they had in the past.

"I'd hoped my entire life to say them." Emma's voice was so soft that it was almost a whisper, but the significance of her words was as clear as day and Snow both smiled and cried to hear them. She place a soft kiss to Emma's temple and then wrapped her other arm tightly around her daughter, unwilling to let go of her again. They stood locked in this embrace for what felt like an eternity, the only sounds the beating of the sea against the boat and Emma's occasional sniffle, before Snow pulled back from the hug, though leaving one arm securely round her daughter's shoulders.

"Okay, it's late and we have a long day ahead of us, I think it's bedtime now."

"But Mom!" Emma protested, in only a slightly joking tone.

Snow smiled at her as she began to guide her daughter back towards the stairs leading below deck. "You know, occasionally I'm almost glad we missed your teenage years, I'm sure you were quite the little hell raiser."

"I would have turned your hair grey," Emma assured her mother.

Snow laughed. "I don't doubt it."

As they reached the cabin door, Snow pressed another kiss to Emma's temple. "Goodnight Emma honey," she said softly.

"Goodnight," Emma replied, opening the door.

Snow hesitated for an instant. "Emma?"

Emma turned back round to face her. "Yeah?"

"I love you."

The pause that followed this deceleration was long, and Snow found herself fearing that she may have overstepped Emma's fragile emotional boundaries. Finally, Emma responded, a smile on her face.

"Yeah Mom, I love you too."

**Well, there we go. I hope you enjoyed this little tribute to an amazing a episode and the fact I'm almost through with exams for this year. There will probably be a 'Dad' companion piece soon and, now that I've finally got some time to write again, I'm planning a rather ambitious rewrite of what happened post-Fairytale Land 'The Stable Boy', called 'If Evil Wasn't Made.' It might be a while before I get it posted, but if you like StableQueen, Good Regina and Mini Snow then keep your eyes out for it.**


	2. Dad

David came out from the cabin to see his daughter sat on the deck, leaning up against the side of the ship.

"Hey Emzy," he greeted as he sat down next to her.

She turned to regard him with raised eyebrows. "_Emzy_?"

He smiled bashfully. "Yeah, it was my nickname for you before you were born."

Emma shook her head. "My name's Emma, you gave it to me so you can use it."

Her father smiled again. "Okay then _Emma_, are you okay?"

She glared at him. "Oh well, my son's been kidnapped and taken to Never Never Land by two psychopaths and his father is lying dead in God knows what magical land, so yeah, I'd say I'm just peachy," she spat venomously.

"Emma," her father responded, a hint of admonishment in his tone. "You know I didn't mean it like that."

Emma jumped to her feet and looked down at her father with fury clear in her face.

"Oh, you mean you'd rather hear about how I'm travelling to Peter Pan land aboard Captain Hook's God damned pirate ship while my mother, who I didn't know for twenty-eight years and who happens to be freaking Snow White, is being seasick in the cabin with her evil step-mother, the adoptive mother of the child I had with Rumplestiltskin's bloody son! And Prince Charming is sat here asking if I'm okay! Okay? How am I supposed to be _okay_? How could _anyone_ be okay with all of this?"

"Emma," David said again, standing up and putting a hand on his daughter's arm. "I know that this is difficult and it's a lot to take and I'm sorry. I wish that I could make this easier on you, but all we can do now is to try and find Henry and after we've found him, then we can try and find some kind of normality."

"Some kind of normality?" Emma repeated. "That might actually sound plausible if you weren't Prince Charming."

David chuckled and Emma sighed, tears beginning to pool in her eyes.

"This is just. . .it's just too much. I mean, I didn't even have a chance to process the fairytale thing and having parents before I got thrown through a hat into a magical land and since then it's just seemed to be one battle after another. I haven't had time to think anything through and everything's moved so fast, and now suddenly you've gone from being Mary Margaret and David to being Mom and Dad and now we're here and. . . It's the first chance I've had to really think and I've barely managed to come to terms with having parents and now all of this. . . How am I _ever_ supposed to be okay with _any_ of this?" Emma turned to her father. "Why are you grinning? Can't you see I'm having a melt down here?"

David put an arm around her shoulders and kissed her head gently. "You called me Dad," he said, unable to shift the wide grin from his face.

"Seriously?" Emma complained, squirming away from him. "Out of everything I just said _that_ is what you go with?"

"It was the happiest moment of my life."

Emma rolled her eyes, but allowed herself a little smile. "Of course it was."

"It was. I love you so much Emma, more than you could ever know."

Sighing, Emma moved back towards his side, leant her head against his shoulder and said quietly, "I love you too."

David looked down at her in wonder. Then he smiled and hugged her. "Scratch that, it was the second happiest moment of my life."

"Don't ruin this," Emma warned. "But what's the point of having a father if not for comfort when it feels like your heads going to explode?"

David laughed and kissed her again. "Your head won't explode Emma. I know that this is difficult, but you've handled it better than most people possibly could."

"I should think I have," Emma huffed. "I slayed a damned dragon."

"You slayed a dragon?" David asked in astonishment and Emma turned her head to look at him.

"Yeah, when I was trying to save Henry from the sleeping curse. Didn't I tell you?"

"A year ago? You fought a dragon a year ago and. . .what? That little bit of information just slipped your mind?"

Emma shrugged. "Well, like I said, we haven't really had time to think things through?"

"But a dragon?" David began to smile slightly. "You slayed it? With a sword?"

"Yes," Emma confimed, unable to keep an air of pride from her voice.

"With no sword training?"

"None."

David's smile widened.

"And all for some stupid egg that Gold stole from me," Emma continued.

"An egg?"

"Yes, a big metal one with powerful magic inside it."

"Maleficent," David exclaimed in surprise.

"Mala-who? Oh God, you don't mean like Sleeping Beauty do you?" Emma demanded, not feeling as though her brain could cope with any more fairy tale characters.

"Sleeping what?" David asked.

"Oh God, never mind," Emma said quickly. "What's Maleficent got to do with anything?"

"She was the dragon, a shape shifter. I put that egg inside of her years ago."

"You did?"

"It was part of a deal with Rumplestiltskin."

"Well, I got it out again. I threw the sword straight at her."

David beamed. "That's my girl."

Emma smiled back at him, taking more delight in her father's praise than she'd imagined she would.

"Oh," she said suddenly, and bit her lip feeling slightly sheepish. "It was your sword, Mr Gold told me, and I left it down in the mine. I'm sorry."

David smiled at her then kissed her again. "Don't worry about it, it's just a sword. See though, if you can handle Maleficent, you can handle anything. Even parents. Even parents who are Snow White and Prince Charming."

Emma laughed. "Maybe you're right."

David wrapped his other arm around his daughter and embraced her in a proper hug. "I know it's far from okay now, but it will be. All of the people on this ship have more than enough power to take on Greg and Tamara and whoever they might be working for. We will do whatever it takes to get Henry back, I promise you."

"I know," Emma said softly as she hugged him back. "I know Dad."

David beamed even more brightly than he'd done before. "And we'll protect you as well Emzy, I promise we will."

"Hey!" Emma protested, pulling away from him. "I thought we'd vetoed 'Emzy' already. I'm twenty-eight; Emzy is a three year old with pig tails."

David smirked and kissed her forehead. "I don't care if you're twenty-eight, you'll always be my little Emzy."

Emma scowled at him for a moment, but then she couldn't prevent a small smile from coming to her face. No one had ever given her an affectionate nickname before and she found that she liked the love that was conveyed in the little corruption of her given name.

"Fine," she conceded finally. "Call me Emzy if you have to, just not in front of anyone else. You are not going to turn this into an accepted nickname for me."

"I wouldn't dream of it," David assured her, pulling her back into a hug. "Emzy is a Dad nickname."

A Dad nickname. Emma repeated in her head, as she wrapped her arms around her father and lay her head on his shoulder. She liked the sound of that.

**A/N: Well, this became far fluffier than I'd envisioned but I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please leave a review in the little box below.**


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